Do You Know Me
by PeverellSlytherin
Summary: What happens when Sam Tyler wakes up and he doesn't leave a begging team behind?
1. Pain

\- 1973 -

The note of tension had decreased considerably. All the robbers had been shot who tried to rob the train. Sam had caught one between the eyes with his radio and the Guv had given him an unamused look of 'did you really just do that?' and shot the guy in the head.

Sam Tyler was bleeding from his shoulder where he had taken a bullet for his Guv, Gene Hunt, which the dark grey work uniform was conceiling quite well.

Sam had almost betrayed his whole team and did not want anyone seeing the result. Unknown to Sam, the bullet had caught a major artery and the fabric was the only thing keeping the blood from spurting in all directions.

Because of this, it was a bit of a shock when Sam suddenly fell down and didn't get back up again. When Gene got to him, he was already as white as a sheet. He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.

\- Present Day -

It was a dreary day when Sam Tyler woke up from his coma. His mother noticed first and her cries notified everyone else.

The first thing Sam noticed was that he was extremely weak. He could hardly lift his hand to touch his mother's cheek who had been sleeping next to the bed, in a chair, with her head on the bed.

The second thing Sam noticed, when his mother turned into a real life banshee out of sheer happiness, is that his hearing was still perfect and that he had one heck of a headache. That was soon dealt with by use of pain medication and he quickly fell asleep.


	2. Work

The doctors removed him from the ventillation a day after he woke up to ensure that his lungs hadn't suffered from being in the coma.

Sam was able to go home a week later after extensive physiotherapy. He was going to take up swimming to strengthen his back that was the most injured part of him.

Sam's mother, Ruth, had wanted Sam to stay with her when he was discharged, but Sam declined. He wanted to see his apartment again after all this time. He wanted to know that he was really back.

His apartment looked exactly the same as he had left it. Ruth had gotten a cleaner in to dust off a bit, but that was all they had done.

After a few days of having his time taken up by swimming, back-dated work and well-wishers, Sam Tyler was becoming extremely agitated. He almost longed to have the Guv kick his door down and demand he buy them food.

Sam had been thinking about his old/new? team for a while now. They had felt so real. Had he really made them all up? Sam sat contemplating it while eating his pizza. He didn't feel like bothering his mother for food when he practically lived off of worse in 1973. Besides, he liked pizza.

It was only a week later that he went onto light duty at work, after several psych evaluations, and only two days after that that Maya moved away. She had joined another branch after he went into the coma.

What bothered him was that the timeline actually was changed. When he had gone into the coma, Maya was kidnapped, but when he came out of the coma and asked her about it she was very confused as that never happened this time around.

That would mean that not everything was just in his head, right? Sam decided to look up his his old/new team memebers and see for himself whether he really was losing it or not.


	3. Sadness

The evidence was staring him in the face. He had requested the files of his team from 1973 and it had arrived. They were real:

DCI Gene Hunt, born 1933 - retired 1983. DI Sam Tyler, born 1941 - deceased 1973. DS Ray Carling, born 1942 - retired 1980 (forced). DC Chris Skelton, born 1951 - retired 1998 (forced).

Ray had never really recovered from the bomb blast that nearly wiped him out and continued to suffer from PTSD until he was forced to retire when he pulled his gun on an officer.

Chris was shot and injured badly in a robbery that went wrong and could not continue as the DI he had become. He tried doing only paperwork, but later decided to take his superior up on the offer of early retirement.

Sam started tracking down the whereabouts of his team members. He found Gene in a retirement home. He was sitting playing poker with the other residents and he was, very clearly, sweeping the floor with them and smirkingly telling them that they could not fool the Gene Genie.

Sam nearly had tears in his eyes just seeing what had become of his crass DCI. He figured that Gene either wouldn't want to see him or wouldn't know him at all. He didn't really know which ending would be worse and left without saying hello. He almost couldn't bring himself to look for the others, but curiosity won out.

He found Ray in a psychiatric home. He was sitting there facing the garden. He looked so small and haunted. The orderly who walked past let Sam know that he could see Ray, but that he probably won't answer as he was on medication.

Sam left feeling like the world was closing in on him. He had caused that. It was his fault. That was the first time back that sam had found himself in a bar since coming back. His legs had walked the familiar road that had changed so much and had ended up at the Railway Arms.

The place was not owned by Nelson anymore, but his son, Eddie, had picked up where his father had left. Eddie did not have his father's accent and sounded purely english.

After ordering and chugging down several scotches, a cab was called for Sam and he was taken home. The last image on his mind, as he fell on his bed, was the only photo he had of his team back in 1973.

It was taken by the newspapers before Sam died. He looked a bit white then already, but it could be easily looked over. Sam had found it after researching what had happened that day after he passed out from blood loss. He didn't really think he had died.


	4. Confusion

Sam Tyler woke up early the next morning with a very unfortunate headache. After drinking some pain meds and taking a shower which made him feel like he was at least passable as a human, he started remembering the previous day.

He was just about to scramble to his desk to find the others when there was a knock on his door. Confused as to who would bother him on a Sunday morning, he opened the door and nearly stumbled back in shock.

On the other side of the door was an older version of the DC Skelton that he had left behind just a few short weeks ago. The man cracked a smile and said: "I thought the Guv was finally going round the bend when he said he saw you. Guess he was right."

Sam couldn't believe it. He had thought that the Guv hadn't seen him or wouldn't know who he was. When he told Chris this he just laughed and asked how the Guv was supposed to forget the biggest pain that ever walked into that station.

Chris promptly steered Sam out of the apartment with a "just wait till they actually get to SEE you!" and slammed the door behind them.

And boy, was that a commotion.


	5. Contentment

I just want to say a thank you to Neil Purling who very helpfully wrote a review that allowed me to figure out how to end this. I really appreciate it and i hope this does your idea about The Guv and his medal some justice.

Chris had pulled Sam out of his flat and into Chris' car. Chris seemed happy to see him and kept talking about 1973 with Sam. Sam was just happy that Chris didn't hate him.

Chris pulled up to a Rotary Club House and told Sam to follow him. Sam cautiously made his way into the club house and nearly stumbled out again in shock. Chris had gotten the whole gang together again.

Surprisingly, it was Ray that pulled Sam out of his shock with a mumbled, "Told you, he'd still be nuttier than me." Gene just laughed and asked him what he thought he was waiting for.

Apparently, the rotary club had allowed the team the use of the club since they had saved four of its members from an armed robbery. The robbers weren't very smart either way as they were dumb enough to rob a non-profit.

Sam didn't really know what to say or how to look them in the eye. How do you apologise for dying right after you almost betrayed your whole team and then showing up years later looking exactly the same as you did back then?

He awkwardly ended up mumbling an apology and was nearly slapped off his feet in an instant by The Guv. Sam ended up halfway in a chair and very close to the floor.

Gene sarcastically and incredulously asked Sam: "What exactly are you sorry for Gladys? For nearly ending our entire force? For dying on us when we should have been celebrating in the Railway Arms? Or for reminding us why exactly we became coppers to begin with?"

Chris added softly that he carried on training the way Sam had taught him and had become one of the youngest DC's on the force because of it. He had also went on to study Psychology with the help of Annie.

Annie had died two years ago after a long life with a good husband and three children. She had stepped over the rank of DCI and had become a Chief Inspector at, believe it or not, Hyde. She said she felt closer to Sam there and that is where she met her husband in the end.

Sam didn't really know what to say to that so he asked what had happened after he flatlined. Yes, he actually said flatlined. Most of them snickered at that and even Ray cracked a smile.

"Well, Chris and Annie moped about for a while. Ray ignored you ever existed and i was given an Empire Gallantry Medal for the whole ordeal." Gene grumbled out.

Ray chimed in that the Guv was also given the Queens Police Medal just before he retired for bringing down a drug ring that was trying to gain a foothold in their community.

The Guv just shrugged and said that he didn't want the filth to dirty his streets if he could have helped it.

Sam turned to Ray and Ray said: "I tried going back to the way we were before you came prancing in like you owned the place, but the work looked shabby even to me. I actually started sorting papers, can you believe it?"

Ray said it was as if a flip was switched when Sam had entered their lives and try as they might, they couldn't flip it again when he left.

"I started blaming myself after you kicked it. I had nothing but insults the entire mission and then you just bled out. I couldn't get that out my mind. Everyone thought it was the bomb's effect still because you said that would happen, but it wasn't. I tried talking about it, but it didn't seem right trying to make up to someone who weren't there anymore."

Sam was speechless. He didn't know that he would effect his team like he had. He thought that they would just carry on like normal without him. Sam hesitantly asked Ray about the cop who he pulled a gun on and Ray started laughing.

The cop was corrupt. He was taking bribes from a local gang and was going to bust their sting operation. Ray said that the acting DCI didn't believe him and forced him into early retirement and a program to 'help' him.

Ray had been able to tell Gene about it before he was sent away and that was the operation where The Guv had gotten his Queen's Medal on so Ray wasn't too sad about it.

He also said that he was alright where he was. The nurses all thought he took his pills, but he never did. That was how he noticed Sam slipping in and out. Apparently, Ray had gotten a very nice retirement package and he had chosen to stay in the care facility he was in.

When asked about it, all Ray said was that it was good entertainment watching the crazies run around when they went off their meds. The matron knew Ray wasn't crazy and didn't need the meds, but she was a friend of Gene's and let Ray stay.

Chris told Sam that he had been given the Police Long Service and Good Conduct medal as well as a very good retirement package when he left.

Chris had married the girl that he had asked all the advice about on how to ask her out. The one that Sam told him to be his natural self with. All in all, the whole team was happy with how their lives turned out even if they did lose their DC too young.

They were all happy to see him alive and well though. The Guv had to add in, though, that DCI Tyler was probably glad to be back in his own time as all his rules were surely followed out to the T here.

Sam just smiled and said that he was just happy to see his team around him again. Gene huffed at the 'his team' part, but didn't correct him either.

After that, Sam was a regular at the bi-monthly 'team meetings'. It was almost like they were at the Railway Arms again all those years ago that still only feel like months to Sam except there was no beer, no Nelson and Sam drove Gene around instead.


End file.
